FIGS. 1A and 1B depict (air-bearing surface) ABS and side views of a conventional magnetic recording apparatus 10. The magnetic recording apparatus 10 may be a perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) apparatus or other magnetic write apparatus. The conventional magnetic recording apparatus 10 may be a part of a merged head including the write apparatus 10 and a read apparatus (not shown). Alternatively, the magnetic recording head may only include the write apparatus 10.
The write apparatus 10 includes a leading shield 12, a nonmagnetic gap layer 14, optional side shield(s) 15, a pole 20 and a trailing shield 30. The apparatus 10 may also include other components including but not limited to coils for energizing the pole 20. The pole 20 includes sidewalls 22 and 24 that form an angle φ0 with the down track direction at the ABS. The trailing surface (top) of the pole 20 is wider than the leading surface (bottom) of the pole 20. The top (trailing) surface of the pole 20 also has a bevel angle φ1 with the yoke direction. Thus, a write gap of constant width, d, is formed between the trailing shield 30 and the pole 20. At some distance in, however, the trailing shield 30 rapidly increases in distance from the pole 20.
Although the conventional magnetic recording apparatus 10 functions, there are drawbacks. In particular, the conventional magnetic write apparatus 10 may not perform sufficiently at higher areal recording densities. For example, at higher areal recording densities, the width in the cross-track direction and the height in the down-track direction for the pole 20 decrease. Consequently, the conventional pole may provide a reduced magnetic field at the ABS. In addition, the width of the gap 14 between the pole 20 and the side shields 15 decreases. Increased shunting of magnetic field from the conventional pole 20 by the side shields 15 may occur. As a result, the conventional write apparatus 10 may have reduced field strength (magnitude) available for writing to the media (not shown). This is undesirable. Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for improving the performance of a magnetic recording write apparatus 10.